Student open data - Transnational education

HE Student Data

23 May 2024

About this release

Transnational education (TNE) students are those who study for awards or courses of UK universities, but who study wholly overseas without coming to the UK.

We collect data on TNE students through the Aggregate Offshore Record (AOR) which is a separate data collection from the HESA Student record. See the Aggregate offshore definitions for more information.

Data from the AOR is normally published as part of Higher Education Student Data. Publication of student data for the 2022/23 academic year has been delayed until later in 2024. The tables and chart below will be incorporated into Higher Education Student Data when it is published.

Important - Changes to transnational data from 2019/20
Changes to aggregate offshore data mean that the latest data differs from previous years' data. Expand this box for more information.

The table below shows information from the HESA Aggregate Offshore Record, capturing students studying wholly outside the UK who are either registered with a UK HE provider or who are studying for an award of a UK HE provider. Notable changes to the record from 2019/20 mean this data should be interpreted with caution.

In 2018/19 and earlier years, the Aggregate offshore record included all publicly funded HE providers in the UK and the University of Buckingham. From 2019/20, coverage expanded to include all English providers registered with the Office for Students’ (OfS) in the Approved (fee cap) and Approved categories and all publicly funded HE providers in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Oxford Brookes changed their reporting practices for the 2019/20 academic year around which students they include in their Aggregate Offshore return. This led to a significant drop to the overall number of student enrolments based wholly overseas.

Figure 12 - HE student enrolments based wholly overseas by location and type of provision

Academic years 2018/19 to 2022/23

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Chart 5 - Transnational students studying wholly overseas for a UK higher education qualification

Academic years 2014/15 to 2022/23

Academic year

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Note: Only showing countries with over 1000 transnational students

This table looks at students who study for awards or courses of UK universities, but study overseas without coming to the UK. These students are counted separately from the HESA Student record population. See the Aggregate offshore definitions for more information.

Table 21 - Aggregate offshore students by HE provider and level of study

Academic years 2014/15 to 2022/23

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